The original GameFan magazine, initially known as Diehard GameFan, was first launched in 1992 with the October 1992 issue. Led by editor-in-chief, Dave Halverson, the multi-format magazine quickly gained a well founded reputation for championing the lesser known genres, the obscure or underrated games, as well as having a good dose of import content – something which other mags seemed to shy away from. Then [... read more ...]

“Before the enormously successful Pokemon franchise, Game Freak developed this little unknown action platformer for the Sega Mega Drive. Chances are that you have never heard of Pulseman, let alone played it, as it was only physically released in Japan during the summer of 1994. I say “physically released in Japan” because it was briefly available as an exclusive on the short lived Sega Channel [... read more ...]

Well, not exactly, but GameFan has started its ‘GameFan Retro’ section with issue 6, recognising the ever growing appeal of classic videogaming from gamers young and old. For those that don’t know, GameFan is a well respected US videogaming magazine that launched in 1992 and featured a colourful design layout with multiple screenshots fused with the editorial throughout. This gave the magazine an edge over [... read more ...]

“The Game Boy Advance was, and still is, a fantastic machine for retrogaming enthusiasts. The hardware architecture of the machine meant that developers could easily bring classic games from the 16-bit era bang up to date with remakes, updates and reboots. While this was all fantastic, gamers shouldn’t forget that there are also some excellent original games available on the Nintendo portable console. One of [... read more ...]

I’ve always been such a massive fan of Flashback (known as Flashback: The Quest for Identity in North America), so it was inevitable that an article about the classic cinematic platform adventure would turn up sooner or later. Another article that was earmarked for issue 5 makes its way over to the wonderful retro section of the GameFan website. A superb game that is still [... read more ...]

With the recent release of the new X-Men movie, X-Men: First Class, GameFan has been covering some X-Men games in their website retro section. To kick off the multi-part retrospective, Anthony Earnst covered the one-on-one fighter arcade games X-Men Children of the Atom and X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Michael Chrisman continued the retrospective with a look at The Uncanny X-Men on the NES and X-Men [... read more ...]

To many gamers, the late 1980s was the true golden age of arcade gaming. Looking back at this period, we reminisce about the classic games that we all played and loved. In hindsight, it was the last great age of arcade gaming as home games consoles began to overtake the arcade in technical ability, negating the need for the average gamer to visit the arcades. [... read more ...]

The Sega Mega Drive / Genesis conversion of Capcom’s arcade smash hit Ghouls ‘n Ghosts is considered one of the machine’s finest games. The 16-bit conversion is playtested, dissected and studied for GameFan’s latest article. There’s no denying the fantastic visuals and gameplay that GnG offers, but oh, that “you gotta be kiddin’ me” difficulty and false ending are real slaps to the face. And [... read more ...]

It’s hard to think of a gaming world without EA Sports dominating the sports genre with their Madden, NHL, PGA and FIFA franchises, but back in 1991, Electronic Arts were just beginning to realise the potential of their sports division. With the help of the super sleek Mega Drive/Genesis console, EA Sports’ quickly emerged as the world’s greatest sports videogame publisher. Not only were the [... read more ...]

I’ve mentioned Road Rash II before, but I never had to chance to delve into it in such depth as I have with this article posted over at the GameFan website. I’d forgotten just how much fun this game can be, especially in two player split screen mode and it still holds up well to this day. A brilliant motor biking game with a difference: [... read more ...]